


Nightswimming

by Sookiestark



Series: Fantastic, Frivolous, and Fragile AU's [3]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst, Winterfell, night swimming
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-07
Updated: 2018-08-07
Packaged: 2019-06-23 02:37:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15596358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sookiestark/pseuds/Sookiestark
Summary: After having a difficult welcome at Winterfell, Jaime goes to piss on the heart tree. He finds Brienne swimming in the snow. Swimming ensues.





	Nightswimming

**Author's Note:**

> I had a very long road trip last week. I was listening to music and Nightswimming by REM came on. This story came out complete at a rest stop in the mountains in the rain. 
> 
> I don't know if its canon or headcanon but the water in the lake is heated by the springs that heat the castle.

Night swimming  
Deserves a quiet night. 

Jaime was tired and freezing and uncomfortable It had been a rough day, a rough week, a rough year, and things did not seem like they were going to get better anytime soon. There were a few times over the last day he had thought he would be killed. But it seemed Jon had more sense than most Targaryens he had met. When Jon Snow had spoken, he had reminded Jaime of his father, Rhaegar Targaryen and how much he had grown since he had seen him. Jaime had thought that Jon sounded like a worthy King and a man worth following. He had been surprised by these thoughts. And he was not surprised by much anymore 

It seemed as if the entire world was turned upside down. No one was who they were supposed to be or who everyone had thought they were. After all, King Robert’s children, all Baratheon born, were none other than his. Robert’s bastard Gendry Waters was the most kingly Baratheon he had ever met and he had been raised in the Streets of Steel. Jon Snow was Rhaegar's legitimate son. Tyrion, his brother, was the small man standing beside the Dragon Queen and he seemed not a dwarf but a very large man, indeed. Cersei, who had always loved and always thought she was better than she was, had turned out to be small, stupid, selfish, even in the face of a terrible threat. He had known she was vain and proud but he thought she must not be senseless and cruel. However, it seemed she was more like Joffrey than he could ever imagine. 

Jaime was a bit lost without her. He had spent his whole life chasing after her. From the time they were born, the very beginning, he grabbed her foot as they emerged. He had been rushing to keep up with her but she had always been rushing away. When he finally caught up to her, Jaime had wondered why he had chased her all those years. 

He had drunk some wine with his brother and Tyrion had wanted him to stay and drink more. But the wine began to taste like Cersei and he felt himself becoming sick from the taste. Jaime had stumbled in the yard with a full bladder, a cloudy head, and a goal. He didn't remember Winterfell well and it was dark so he couldn't see his path. But as he walked into the godswood, he grabbed a torch. 

Jaime Lannister needed to piss and he wanted to piss on Old Ned Stark's heart tree. He had thought about seducing one of his daughters, but one had been his good sister and he could see the eyes Tyrion made at her still. The other Stark girl, the dark-haired one, looked like she wanted to kill him and had the skill to do it. So, a nice long piss on his gods would have to do. 

He did not know why he blamed old, dead Ned Stark but he did. If Lord Stark hadn't confronted Cersei, she would have never struck out. Old Ned could have left and taken his daughters, untouched. Did he have any idea what his fucking honor would do, that it would lay waste to the Seven Kingdoms? Better to lie, to go home, to be safe and warm in Winterfell. He saw the heart tree in the distance and felt the fullness of his bladder. It is then he heard the sound of water splashing before he saw the torch buried in the snow.

Jaime stopped untying his pants and looked into the darkness to see what was in the pool. Walking closer, he saw Brienne in the water, naked swimming, lost in her thoughts. Steam was rising slowly off the top and her white-blonde head emerged from the dark surface of the water. She had somehow gotten even uglier than he had remembered and that fact alone made him smile. She hadn’t noticed him. Brienne was too busy enjoying the hot water in the cold winter night. 

His voice broke her reverie, "Wench, you are going to freeze to death." 

She looks at him scowling, "Water clears my head."

"Does it?" As soon as he spoke the words, Jaime Lannister started undressing. 

"What are you doing?" she said a bit panicked. 

He spoke partially naked on the snow bank, "You said water cleared your head and I could use some clarity."

"Jaime!" it was an anxious sound that came from her.

"Have no fear, Brienne. We have bathed once before... I am tired and have no strength to seduce you."

Jaime thought she had to hear the weariness in his voice, the resignation. He watched her watch him undress. In the light of the torch, as he untied his pants, he heard her move in the water, modestly. Jaime grinned tiredly, wondering if she liked what she saw in the dark, slightly smug. He could still make girls like Brienne blush madly in the dark. 

Her heard her voice, "Be careful, the ground is slippery." 

"Do not worry, Wench. I might be maimed and old and probably slated for death but I am sure-footed still. Anyway, you shouldn't be swimming in the dark alone. You could drown. I have come to watch for your safety."

 

Jaime chuckles. He hears her slip under the water, laughing. She is a flash of white skin, as bright and pure as the untouched snow. She speaks, "I could swim about the time I could walk. In Tarth, we swim every day." 

 

They stop speaking. Instead, they swim under a swollen golden moon, splashing and occasionally laughing.

 

They swim under the huge moon as the snow around them looks slightly haunted, slightly magical. The steam from the hot water rises thickly in the cold air. Jaime looks up at the sky and realizes this ugly woman was right all along and all he needed was a swim to clear his head. Brienne comes close to him and looks up at the stars and the moon. She is so close that he thinks what might happen if he touched her. He holds his breath and closes his eyes to the thought.

He wonders if he touched her in the dark, smooth water what she might do. It seems like it has been forever since he has been held by a person who cared for him. How long has it been since someone touched him? It is a foolish thought. In his final weeks at the Red Keep with Cersei, they would spend nights and days boldly in each other's arms. But it seems like forever since someone touched him or held him close. For a second, he thinks back to when he has been touched before Cersei. He remembers Tommen hugging him before he left for the Riverrun. Before that, Myrcella hugged him tightly on the ship right before she collapsed. Her hair smelled of oranges and cinnamon. And before that, Brienne had held him in the baths of Harrenhal, calling for help. 

 

In the darkness of the warm water, 

he thinks he would not kiss her or touch her. 

But if she could hold him and call him  
Jaime  
softly her breath a whisper against his skin. 

 

That would be a fine thing.

 

In a second, she pushes away from him and is at a respectful distance once more, a distance too far, too awkward to reach out with no clear-cut intention. 

Perhaps he does not need to..

Perhaps, all he needs is night swimming with her in the quiet godswood on a cold clear night.

Perhaps


End file.
